Where will they now be safe to play?

I had an interesting encounter yesterday that I feel compelled to share.

Early in the morning, around 10:30, David was at preschool and I was trying to entertain Hannah, and I had a few minutes to kill before 11 and our Mommy lunchin at Corrinas. I thought it the perfect opportunity to get in some one on one park time with her. She's always sharing the spotlight, and I knew she'd love to go to our favorite place to play and have me all to herself.

As we rolled up to the park, we had to go a bit of a ways to get parking there were so many cars, but it being a nice day and the end of September that wasn't surprising. What was surprising was however the mother with her babe in arms, practically running from the park. She took one look at me as she buckled her little one into the car seat and left without a word. I didn't think much of it at the time, people are always running to and fro, maybe she was late, or was out of diapers. Who knows. I then took Hannah out of the car and together we walked over to the park. Hannah is now walking, has been for a few weeks, and loves to get practice in whenever she can. I placed her on the ground and she immeidatly toddled over to the swings. We played there for some time, watching as other people walked their dogs or biked by. An older gentleman in a bright orange hat made his way towards the play ground and took a seat on one of the far benches. This is not an uncommon occurance at Centennial park, families will often come to the area and older members will take rests on the benches. However at this time, having heard of the high-risk Sexual Offender living out in Sidney, who prays on young girls newborn to early teens, it can be a little nerve racking. Thankfully for my nerves, other families joined us at the playground and eventually he left. As our time there came to a close, I walked with Hannah back to our car, and placed her in the car seat as I noticed a police car making its way through the little inset road we had parked on. He flashed his lights and drove off, which I found strange.

As we drove off, the happenings at the park quickly left my thoughts as we stopped in at the mommy lunch, and then left to pick up David from preschool.

However as I tried to sleep that night, I couldn't get the image of that man out of my mind. I couldn't shake the eery feeling he had given, and I started to wonder. Could this have been that man who I knew not his name or his face but had thought, Saanichton is farenough away from Sidney that we should be ok. This morning, just to cure my thoughts I looked up the newpaper article, and the photo of that man looked very much like the man in the orange hat.

It makes me wonder could it have been? And if it was, did that woman know? Why didn't say say anything. We need to ban together as a community, protect not only ourselfs but the others around us. We need to make smart choices and educate ourselfs.

http://www.theprovince.com/High+risk+sexual+offender+living+Sidney+RCMP/1988099/story.html

War Wounds

Last Friday David had his first encounter with stitches. The poor little man was just trying to be helpful when he took the broom from me and said "my turn to sweep". Somehow along the way, whilst I was distracted picking up toys and crayons from the floor, David lodged the broom into his big barn. At this point he must've somehow fallen into it, where he managed to badly cut his nose. After three rounds of anesthetic (no surprise that they had a hard time knocking him out) my beautiful boy was then sporting his first stitches, 5 eyelash stitches. Yesterday he got them out, and after that ordeal recieved the "big dinosaur" that he picked out earlier. It was a heart breaking ordeal, but he's lived through the other end of it, and we're so pleased with our brave little boy who has officially been made a Greenwood.

First Day of School

My baby is growing up! David started his first day of school last week. I think the transition was more traumatic for us than for him. I wanted to sit outside the classroom the whole time crying my eyes out. But I held it together, and left with the other parents. I came half an hour early to pick him up though, and sat outside. I've been doing that every day. I love to sit and listen to them singing. I can always hear David laughing. So far he's played moraccas, loves the toy annimals, dancing and siging, and has even used the urinal. He drew a purple elephant, which I look forward to seeing. Yesterday he said to me, "mama, I made bubbles today". He loves preschool. And I love his teachers. David is such a special guy, and so easily lovable. How could you not with that beautiful little face and his twinkling smile.

Bike trip and icecream?

So we come together yesterday with a few friends for a bike ride. We ended up having to turn back halfway, somthing about handlebars?. I don't know, but we ended up going 9.5k. Not bad considering I'm pulling the kids and the trailer. At the end though the others suggested stopping for ice cream. I personally indulged in a salad with low cal dressing. I figure, I've just worked out, Im not going to ruin that by eating ice cream. Well we shall see if it did me any good, still no results on the scale. This truly is torture....

diets and celebration DON'T mix

So the diet where I ate practically nothing seemed to be working out. Along with two bike rides during the day I had lost a couple of lbs in my first week. Not to bad. Then we went to a wedding reception. Darn you Meghan and your amazingly spread array of food. I have to say that the food was so good I don't even care that I gained back all my weight from eating it. But now I have to get back on my diet and work extra hard. Today we are biking to Matticks farm from Saanichton...yikes!!! I just hope I'll see some results on the scale.

Life...in general

I heard a quote today "The first half of our lives if ruined by our parents, the second by our children". I have to disagree. The first half of our lives is or should be enriched by our parents, and the second blessed by our children. Family is the most valuable aspect of life, precious and wonderful. Nothing short of a perfect blessing. Yes the people in it may not always reach the highest of their expectations, but maybe we should be asking not why are they falling short, but how can we reach higher...

Adventures in Weight Loss

Ok, so it's been nearly a year since Hannah was born, shouldn't I have lost some weight by now? We've recently been introduced to the world of biking, and I've been taking the kids out on average once or twice a day. It's been three weeks, I haven't lost any weight. So I am now officially on a diet...we'll see how that goes!...rice, beans, tofu and water. Of course there's always room for acceptions, like Chris Halls yummy chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes (I'll be dreaming of those for a while).